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Tax credit bill tailor-made for New Orleans' South Market District signed by Bobby Jindal

South Market District New Orleans

An artist's rendering of how the South Market District on Loyola Avenue will appear when construction is completed in 2015. The District is being developed by Domain Cos. which has six other developments in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge.
(South Market District website)

New Orleans' South Market District, a multi-million dollar development in the Central Business District, will now be eligible for additional tax credits under legislation signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday. The move will expand the total tax credits for the development by over $500,000 to a total of $3.5 million.

House Bill 255, sponsored by state Rep. Walt Leger, D-New
Orleans, is the third modification to the state's Enterprise Zone, or EZ, program to fit the parameters of the Domain Companies' development. The EZ program, instituted in 1981, is meant to
incentivize business development and job creation in disadvantaged areas.

Once completed, the South Market District on Loyola Avenue between Julia
and Lafayette Streets will feature at least 500 luxury apartments and at
least 170,000 square feet of retail space in a four-block area.
The Industrial Development Board of New Orleans already unanimously approved
plans for a 10-year payment in lieu of taxes for the District.

Currently, the EZ program only extends tax credits to
"transit-oriented developments," like the streetcar-adjacent South Market
District, with up to 200 residential units and 15 percent commercial
facilities. Leger's bill expands this range to 300 units and 200,000
square feet of commercial facilities.

The district would qualify for the program's tax rebate by providing
1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs to members of low- and moderate-income backgrounds. The streetcar line will provide easy access to the
workplace, Leger said
during testimony before a House committee.

The cost of the expanded tax credits will be $533,000 over five years.